Ahh that is probably your problem. We are out of the Infant seat stage. We are now using a regular car seat. Can't remember the manufacturer. We have two. I think we stopped using the convertible infant unit when he reached 20lbs. Don't hold me to that I can't remember. Yeah I don't think those would fit very well. Before this car I had a Miata and the car seats fit just fine!

I was very impressed with the MINI, I find it very baby friendly. ISOFIX the whole bit.

Now if I could just find a way to remove the 100lbs of gold fish and Cheerios my son tosses. Yesterday I got hit with a flying animal cracker. Hard to yell at them when they get such pleasure out of it...

I just thought of something else. My son faces forward. No chance of his chair fitting facing backwards. I've never tried it but wouldn't think it would work. My wife really would be forced into the windshield!

 

A-ha! So the baby bounces his/herself? Do I have that right? And this puts them to sleep and/or elicits some sort of happy-gurgly noises. So it's like a surrogate "grandpa's knee" in a way. Very interesting -- thanks papa MGC! No problemo getting mum and dad's autographs!

 

Our bouncie chair requires 4 "D" cell batteries because it vibrates and has tunes, Wilson does not bounce himself. It also has pretend fish that float around and bubbles.

 

You are approaching this problem from the cool sense of a man who has not yet had the baby. The real decisions will be made by the wife, who after the baby is born, will lose all sense of reality.


Just do what she says and go along for the ride. Get your own car, preferably one she feels is "too dangerous to put the baby in."

If she wants a minivan, get a minivan. A Volvo station wagon - no problem. An SUV - just tell me what color. A 1973 Oldsmobile Vistacruiser - start looking.
Believe me - I've been maried for over 30 years - don't rock the boat and there will be smooth sailing. Come between a mother and what she thinks is right for her baby and look out below.
Nod politely and say "yes dear" a lot. Get her what she wants.

 

Rollover! Rollover! Big is safe???? I do not get why folks do not look at the numbers! I remember when one TV show did a review of SUVs and during their taping, an accident occurred a block over. They moved to tape it and found a young woman with a baby flipped her SUV with a minimal impact accident! Duh!

 

^^ Yeah... that's an attitude that I REALLY don't understand (bigger is safer, when it's clearly not).

 

Amen.

So, Um...I don't have a mini yet. My wife really stunned me last week when after years of discussing what car to buy next, she gave me the OK to get a MCS. We have a '93 saturn SC2 that has been wonderful to me since 1993 and an '00 Camry LE that is effectively the wife and toddler mover. Our daughter is 2 1/2. The saturn will be sold or traded in for the MCS and our plan (for now) is to only put our daugher in the MCS when necessary so we can keep the interior as clean as possible.

There was this moment of hesitation when I thought we should not buy anything yet until we can get a hybrid sienna or highlander. You know, save money now, buy bigger later. Then, my testosterone-drunk inner monologue set me straight. My wife is letting my buy a supercharged miniature BMW. She won't expect me to haul mulch anymore. She won't commandeer my car to cart kid stuff around. I've been a lot more careful about leaving dirty dishes lay around, I'll tell you that much.

My mother-in-law was the one who removed all doubt in my mind that we should buy the MCS. All she said was "Why? Is it safe?". She borrowed the saturn a couple of times, but I'll be boogered if she'll ever borrow the mini!

 

OK, so I'm searching the forums for any comments on hybrids and up pops this thread. It's about three years old but pretty amusing...Toasty asking about kids, space, and the narcotic effect of bouncing seat toys (think small-size moon bounce apparatus for toddlers).

I was surprised that everyone focused on the "stuff" aspect of going large.

The critical "stuff" driving this transition from small to large is actually air. That's right: distance between kids.

Ten years ago, frustrated parents bought vans to separate them. "Let's get a van so each kid can have his/her own row...kinda like travelling with separate kids bedrooms!"

Today, iPods have somewhat mitigated the need for so much distance. But some kids are actually bored by the iPods. Their parents insist on DVD players with separate screens find it easier to go the van route.

Jack up tose car payments and gas bills so Johnny and Jimmy can watch School of Rock on the way to the soccer game. For the 3,000th time...

 

yah, for some reason parents think they need a van or suv when they
have kids. not the case.

 

Back in 1993, when my son was born (to my ex-wife), I brought my new baby, my ex-wife and my step-daughter (aged 6) home in a Renault Clio 16v.

this is not mine but same color....



we kept that car for another 18 months and I traded it for an Escort RS Cosworth !

again, not my car, but you get the idea



My daughter came home in that one !

In 1995 I finally got a car that had 4/5 doors (keeping the cossie for weekends) and I bought a Saab 900.......

We used to road-trip a couple of times a month, even taking the Clio to eurodisney (500 miles+ each way) without ever resorting to roof racks or fedex !

You just learnt to pack well and only take what you actually need.

 

Yes Max, but your Brittish and are trained from birth to be tidy and compact with just about everything. I've seen your refrigerators and wash machines(when my parents lived in Wales) all very small to US norms-which is a good thing as you also visit local markets and by fresh foods-know your butcher,baker and candlestick maker we shop in big box stores and hardly ever speak to our neighbors. My wife went through the SUV-Minivan phase that is now finally over (thank God). We still have a wagon which I have always prefered for extended family trips and hauling stuff but now that my daughter can get her self in and out of the back seat I finally was able to get a MINI! I have been wanting one for quite a while but the timing was wrong-untill now. People think they need an SUV because or advertising and the pack mentality-"all the other parents have one". I hope that trend will be over soon as wagons have become much better,safer,more efficient and gernally more fun to drive than the old Vista-Cruiser days.

 

Imagine when I saw this title come up on the forum main page -- "What genius", thought I, "could be responsible for a thread on a subject so close to mine own warring heart???"

Alas, it was me.

Despite 2 pages and knowing people with children, I still don't understand how small things require big things in which to be hauled. Some people will never learn; suppose I'm one of them. Although I will say that I spent a few days in vague understanding when, after adopting a dog, I began to think that it'd be nice to have the space to schlep the heavily shedding dog without having to put down the backseats (thus eliminating the possibility for more than 1 passenger) to install (for the 6000-th time) the cage-type thingie.

But I'm over it.

 

From what I have read and undertand ... one reason is called "separation". When they are a certain age ... it's advisable to keep some of them far apart I'm laughing at that but I think its true. If you had siblings and went in the car with Mom/Dad somewhere ... how many didn't fight?

 

Hey Max, how about a total OT run down on that RS Cosworth- that is one HOT ride!

 

What is so hard to understand? A rear-facing infant seat will not fit in the center position if I am in either front seat. I am a little over 6'2, which isn't that tall, but it isn't even close to fitting without seriously impairing my seat position. Forward-facing gives rise to the seat-kicking problem in "normal" cars. Add to that the ability to carry a stroller and a dog, and a sedan can't compete.

 

That is how we ended up with a Chevy Suburban.

 

220hp (or so) and four wheel drive in standard trim. Based on a 4x4 Ford Sierra (Mercury Merkur) chassis with 'stretched' Escort look-a-like body work, powered by a 2.0ltr turbo charged engine by Cosworth.

In stock form it was pretty quick and extremey well balanced. Very few stayed standard, and most where crashed at one stage or another. Horrifly expensive to insure and service, but for the 'chosen' few they where the ultimate hot hatch.

Of course an inexpensive 'chip' and a couple of minor changes saw 300hp or so.

Then you go down the route of 'grey' injectors, a Group N head gasket and yet more electronic wizardry and you are knocking on the door of 400hp.

At that point, Grp N (or A) suspension and brakes start to become necessary and you swap the small fast-spinning turbo for a larger one with horrible turbo lag and you start to look into the feasibility of coping with a 500hp 4wd Escort on the road !

Around about this point you install the ful cage, harnesses and OZ racing wheels, along with a full Graham Goode exhaust system, poly bushed suspension and yet more electronic trickery.

Mine made 505hp at the wheels in this trim !

A lot of fun, but a hell of a money pit.....

 

We're well past the child rearing age and well into geezerhood, but I clearly remember my 6 mo old son tucked between the front seats of our '68 Javelin. Well, at least till the rear view mirror unglued itself and bopped him in the nose! When our 2nd arrived 18 months later, we traded it for a Citroen DS (4 drs) and life became much easier.

Minivans have gotten a bad rap, they are the most space efficient way to move people and stuff in the USA, period. They're also safer, more energy efficient and so on..........

We now have an Audi allroad wagon (along with the MINI and my XK-E), and for my money (since I spent it) it's the best combination of being able to haul large quantities of people and stuff (or quantities of large people and stuff) and still have fun. I think that's a lot to do with why wagons are making a serious comeback. The fun factor, that is........

I have 7 brothers and sisters, when we were growing up the 9 passenger wagon was the only choice, if we'd have had the current crop of luxo-minivans available then, I'm sure we would have owned one. But today, the mini-van is the right choice............

That said, will someone please explain the sudden rash of 7 passenger vehicles, when the average US family is 4 or less? Where is this demand coming from?

 

dang geezers that always wants to tag along with their grand kids.

 

I think a lot of people get an SUV when they have a baby for one particular reason:

TO HAUL THE SUV-SIZED STROLLER THEY ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE.

I remember when strollers were quaint, pretty little things. Only in recent years has the stroller grown from baby-sized to this monster of Brobdignagian proportions that looks as though it can compete in Battlebots and come out the winner. These oversized baby Suburbans block supermarket aisles, get pushed by self-absorbed parents into the ankles of innocent bystanders and create havoc and danger in crowd situations. THEN there are the two-seat versions that are practically double in size.

To top it off, I've seen the aforementioned babyhemoths piled up with so much junk that there is no more room for the baby, who ends up being carried anyway. What's up with all that?

 

Best. Post. Ever.

 

Minivans do have their useful applications, I drive my MINI and when I need more space which is only a few times a year, I rent something that will fit the need.

 

Yeah, people should just get a trailer hitch and a boat trailer for those freaking things. Do any of them come with lawnmower engines, so that baby never has to experience the boredom of non-combustion-engine movement? How about DVD players?

 

This whole thread makes me wonder how we got by when I was a child. Up until I was about 10, my parents crammed all four kids in the back seat of our Volvo 240 sedan and then finally bought a Volvo 740 wagon with the third seat in the back. Somehow we always managed to fit all 6 of us and our stuff, without a rooftop box. Damn, I sound old... and I'm only 25...

 

we have a Combi stroller that folds in/out with a quick snap of the wrist.
it's a real nice feature, very light weight, great quality.